There was a period of about 20 minutes on Tuesday afternoon when the successful approach the Cornwall girls' soccer team has employed all season began to unravel.

Three-time defending Section 4 champion Vestal started to send long balls deep into Cornwall's defense and the Dragons lost their poise a bit. Cornwall started to give up a series of corner kicks, and instead of trying to work the ball out of their end the Dragons resorted to booting it, not always successfully.

"We got stuck on our heels and had trouble clearing it out,'' said coach Rick Miller. "You start getting antsy with the ball, and instead of controlling it and passing it up, you just try to clear it.''

"I was getting a little nervous,'' Ally Lagrutta said. "I felt like it was slipping away a little.''

Second-ranked Vestal (17-2) did not score, thanks to some big saves by Cathy Eliasson, and Cornwall successfully regrouped at halftime.

"We weathered the storm,'' Miller said.

Cornwall came out and played more relaxed in the second half, working its precision passing game. Finally, with about nine minutes left in regulation, Caroline Staudle followed up the rebound of a Megan Gagnon shot and scored the lone goal in a Class A quarterfinal win.

Kelly Gleason started the scoring play by racing down the wing. She crossed the ball to Gagnon, who took a shot from the left wing. The Vestal goalkeeper was far off her line to make the initial stop, but the rebound bounced into a crowd of players. Staudle managed to get her left foot on it and scored from 18 yards out.

"I ran a couple steps to get to it,'' Staudle said. "I took a chance to kick it. I don't think any of the defenders were standing on the line and it just flipped through.''

The fifth-ranked Dragons (16-1) join the 2005 squad as the only Cornwall teams to reach the state semifinals. At 5 p.m. Saturday, Cornwall takes on the Islip-Southside winner — those schools played for the Long Island championship on Tuesday — in a semifinal matchup at Homer High School.

The quarterfinal round has been Cornwall's bugaboo in recent years, and that history weighed heavy on the player's minds.

"Usually we have trouble getting past this game,'' Lagrutta said. "We wanted it so bad.''

That passion showed in the opening 20 minutes of the game played at SUNY Cortland, but then the tide turned as Vestal applied a lot of offensive pressure.

"We kind of lost our game and how we usually play,'' said Andrea Mancuso. "At halftime we agreed it was not going to be our last 40 minutes. Everybody's mood switched and they were ready to put in the work. We put our heads together and set the tone. We can do anything if we put our minds to it."